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BALLOT BOXES SNACHED IN PNG’S SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post Courier, July 2) – Polling in Papua New Guinea’s 2007 national elections got off to a shaky start on Saturday.

In the Southern Highlands Province, the PNG Defence Force reported that four ballot boxes were snatched by armed men at Kopiago as unarmed policemen stood by.

While voters in the rest of the country are poised to cast their votes in the next 10 days, voters in Central, Western, Southern Highlands, Lae and East New Britain provinces voted … in some areas only.

Polling did not start in some areas in Central Province because ballot papers had not been sent and polling officials had not arrived in time because of transport problems.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.